Emergency Response Database (ERDB)

Emergency Response Database software allows users to store and query information for the resources, skills, and/or needs of members of a Latter-Day Saint ward or branch which may be useful to plan for natural disasters.

Easily installed on a laptop, this software could be invaluable for church leaders responding to an emergency situation.

Features

• Names, addresses, and phone numbers are imported from MLS.
• The application can export a very basic summary to Excel.
• The software can facilitate grouping the ward into geographic zones. In the case of an emergency, zones would need to be self sufficient and could help each other out.
  • Members of a zone should probably be geographically close together.
  • Zones should have approximately an equal number of resources and skills as well.
• The software allows the user to to run queries. (For instance find all families which have someone who has CPR training.)
• The software shows the users summaries of the resources available in the ward. (For instance how many 4X4 trucks are in the ward?)
• The software allows the user to see their ward on a map. However, you must have internet access to get the latitude and longitude for each family so they can be shown on a map. Be aware that the mapping information is not always perfect.
• For those not using the map version or who don't have internet access, you may use grids for a pseudo-map. Most paper maps have grids on them with A through some letter on the top and One through some number going down the left side. For each family, the user can enter a grid such as A10, and the software can show how many families are in each grid.
• Some basic reports can be exported to PDF, and Excel.

Download

Download this Open Source software and read system requirements at the following website:
http://jay.askren.net/emergency/

Stake Use

I don't know if this software is extensible enough for stake use, so if you have any experience using the ERDB, please tell us about it using the comments section below.